Welcome back to competitive innovations, where today we will be examining a number of GT size 40k events as the Arks of Omen meta gets into full swing!

Today we’re looking at:

• Melee at Shiloh (major)
• Renegades Open: Echoes Of War 5
• Wheat City Open 2023
• Team Battle Brothers 40k GT

On Friday (where hopefully the apothecary will have restored Wings to battle readiness):

• Heroic Scale Gamers Houston Open
• The Pecking Order: Peeps of War GT
• Charicon II 2023 40k

This week’s Showdowns, as voted for by the Goonhammer patrons, are:

• Astra Militarum vs. Chaos Daemons at the Wheat City Open
• Iron Hands vs Ulthwe at the Team Battle Brothers GT
• (Friday) Chaos Knights vs. Astra Militarum at The Pecking Order: Peeps of War GT

**Rumours that cultists loyal to Lowest of Men have infiltrated the CI offices and written some of the list analysis are unsubstantiated and any caught spreading them will be destroyed**

Melee At Shiloh

59-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Springdale, Arkansas US on February 18 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Brent Simon – Chaos Daemons – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Just as Planned Flamer Spam

Final Round Matchup

92 – 70 Victory against Howard Watts – Ultramarines.

Thoughts

The whisperings in WhatsApp and Discord channels the world over that ‘whoops all Tzeentch’ might in fact have some otherworldly legs in Arks of Omen have come to glorious fruition. This list throws an absolute shedload of colourful fire at the opponent via large squads of Flamers, supporting Burning Chariots, and Exalted Flamer force multipliers. These latter additions make ideal marine killers, with flexible damage profiles at range that can switch between horde clearance and MEQ slaying, and screamer bites on the chariots to finish off any crippled infantry units in an unexpected bout of close quarters fighting!

Access to the Tzeentch warp storm table options ensures that the Flamers in this list are hitting pretty much as hard as they ever were, on 2s to hit with rerolls. The ever present 3++ Tzeentch daemon save against shooting makes a mockery of many of the gun heavy lists on the scene at present, and the mobility provided by deep strike shenanigans, multiple teleports via Shrouded Step and Warp Portal, and flying-assault-weapon-toting gribblies gives this build considerable reach and scoring flexibility on the table.

Be’lakor ties things together nicely here, offering some combat brawling potential, hard target removal, and additional delivery via warp locus. The battery of mobile psychic support characters can tick off psychic secondaries, blast away with mortal wounds, and add to the overall vibe of ‘sneaky, resilient nuisance’ that this list offers in abundance. Though I worry it may be a little vulnerable to being swamped by a fast and agressive combat army (thank heavens none of those have recently been released), in an early Arks meta that has gone big on shooting Tzeentch definitely has a place, and the victory over Ultramarines in round five highlights exactly what it can do to more honest, gunline centric builds. Congratulations on realising your schemes with an interesting and thematic list Brent!

Brad Chester – Salamanders – 2nd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Salamanders Melta Party

Thoughts

Salamanders never quite enjoyed the same dominance that Iron Hands did in the marine meta of days gone by, but they’ve always had a toolkit eminently suitable for amping up a melta-centric game plan, and boy is it a good time to run melta. That is very much on display in this list, which goes wide on cheap, punchy ranged threats in the form of Land Speeders and Attack Bikes, supported by Gravis-clad brawlers in a large slab of Aggressors (an ideal candidate for Flamecraft) and Eradicators. Some cheap Lascannon Devastators offer long distance supporting fire at budget rates, and the Apothecary keeps them all coming back for more.

The Obsidian Aquila relic on the Chapter Master offers an additional aura of 6+++ for core units, coupling with the Salamanders trait and stratagems to ensure this build can take a punch and shield its key damage dealers whilst throwing down melta punishment of its own. Unlike some of the other marines builds built to exploit the devastator doctrine (and Codex Warfare) currently doing the rounds this list has the very real option of heading for the tactical doctrine and never looking back, dining out on the +1 to wound on flamers and melta to dish out severe hurt on the enemies of Vulkan. It’s a novel take on the general trend of go-wide, efficient marine shooting, and it’s nice to see the good guys in green back taking down a podium place after some time in the wilderness.

Peyton Preece – Genestealer Cult – 3rd Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Industrial Cult Neophyte / Biker Spam

Thoughts

The Industrial Affinity Neophyte / Biker GSC builds are a well known entity at this stage, and this list doesn’t pull many surprises. The Unwilling Orb Magus is a great little tech piece into any Daemons and Eldar currently running rampant, offering a crucial point of failure for their psychic scheming with two denies from anywhere on the board. I’m a known admirer of this unit / relic combo, but I can definitely hear Innes tutting and muttering something about Abhor the Witch in my sub conscious somewhere. Utilising Grenade Launchers as the special weapon choice across all the Neophyte units offers maximum flexibility, with some anti horde capabilities balanced with the strength 6 option for cracking open enemy land speeders. It keeps it simple, and ensures every Neophyte blob is equipped for a number of different roles.

GSC Bikes and Neophytes score even better via improvements to Ambush in Arks, punch harder in a post AoC world, and throw a horde shaped spanner into the best laid plans of anti-elite shooting and armies everywhere. It’s a build we can expect to see continuing to make waves for the foreseeable future. Well done Peyton on the podium finish.

Howard Watts – Ultramarines – 4th Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Ultramarines Invictor Pressure

Thoughts

This list brings back a classic Ultramarines ploy from earlier in the edition, that of ramming some Invictor Warsuits in places the opponent absolutely doesn’t want them, with the ability to redeploy via Rapid Redeployment in response to the turn order and wider conditions. Ultramarines can access hyper efficient shooting by castling their big guns around Mr Gulliman himself, and this build is loaded with Heavy guns to take advantage of Codex Warfare.

The triple Las Fusil Eliminator squads is an interesting addition to more familiar Dreadnoughts, offering high damage firepower from cheap, easily concealed units that drag the opponent out and into the rest of the guns. It packs a punch at range and in combat, only falling down into the anti-shooting tech of the sneaky Tzeentch list above. Great work Howard!

The Best of the Rest

There were 6 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 5th – Jeremy Capko – Iron Hands: Actual Iron Hands with an eye-watering setup of three Redemptors, three Reapers and the traditional drop Devs and super Contemptor to fill. With so many vehicles the Hands trait starts to really pay off, and it also means accessing The Ironstone is cheaper.
• 6th – Bryce Watson – Iron Hands Successors: a surprising second appearence for The Flesh Is Weak, but in a very different build – lots of drop pods filled with a mix of Sternguard and Devs, tooled up scouts, and Hekaton Aikos to provide a second character dread. Here, I’m guessing the extra resilience that the Iron Hands tactic provides on 2W models against D2 shooting is the big draw.
• 7th – Connor Johnson – Thousand Sons & Daemons: All-rounder Thousand Sons with two mid-size Scarab units, a big block of Spawn and some utility Daemons in a Battle Brothers patrol.
• 8th – Joshua Shirley – Black Templars: Herohammer, hulls (two Redemptors and two Reapers) plus a full Terminator brick with all the buffs. Spicy stuff.
• 9th – Ben Ledbetter – Votann: A mobile Ymyr list foregoing Fortresses to take extra bikes, some Sagitaurs to distribute beserks, and small units of Thunderkyn and Hearthguard.
• 10th – Jonathan Cox – Orks: An unusual mechanised Freebooterz list, packing three Kannonwagons a full of Nobz and some Tankbustas in Trukks to take advantage of the Clan trait.

Renegades Open: Echoes Of War 5

53-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Cardiff, Wales GB on February 18 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings. This event was using 20-0 scoring.

Liam Callebout – Chaos Daemons – 1st Place

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Mixed Arms Daemons

Final Round Matchup

14 – 6 Victory against Sam Jones – Adepta Sororitas.

Thoughts

Liam continues his recent reign of terror with this nicely balanced Daemons list, packing excellent ranged output, harassment and mobility pieces (Screamers!!), punchy trading and trapping units in Daemonettes and Fiends, and the ever present threat of Skarbrand suddenly just waltzing out from your nightmares and playing a little game of ‘stomp across the board, trapping and smashing all your favourite toys one by one’. Nurglings offer some early board control and screening against alpha strike builds, and this list looks all set to keep on taking names in the name of Chaos Undivided. Great stuff Liam!

The Best of the Rest

There were 6 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd (3 wins, 2 draws) – Thomas Warwick – Tyranids: Leviathan with a variety of monsters and a big brick of Raveners for pressure.
• 3rd (3 wins, 2 draws) – Taff Jones – Raven Guard: Aggressive Raven Guard, making use of the ability to deep strike Aggressors and optionally pre-game move some big melee units to put the opponent under pressure. Also sports lots of Outriders, who are pretty nifty at running down out-of-position enemy Characters when the superdoctrine is on.
• 4th – Jon Beal – Craftworlds: Ulthwe with the Avatar, lots of Shroud Runners and a big brick of D-cannons.
• 5th – Nicholas Christensen-Secker – Craftworlds & Harlequins: Hail of Doom with loads of Avengers and a big Shuriken Cannon bike squad, then Twilight Troupes and the Favour Jester to provide alternative angles of attack.
• 6th – John McCarthy – Chaos Daemons: Be’lakor & Skarbrand once more proving they’re best buds, with lots of Flamers and infantry backing them up.
• 7th – Liam Keane – Imperial Knights: House Raven with a tanky Forgemaster Paladin to hang back with Armigers and Moiraxes while an Errant and Warglaives charge forward.

Wheat City Open 2023

52-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Brandon, Manitoba CA on February 18 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Secure Missing Artefacts

Alexander Buchan – Astra Militarum:
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Logan Antonation – Chaos Daemons:
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Guard are fresh on the scene and ready to make some noise over the next few weeks, with efficient shooting, orders shenanigans, and an excellent secondary game plan. They’re also in a stage of real experimentation, with some of the heavy hitters from the new book (Kasrkin and Lord Solar in particular) still making their way into collections and into lists. As such Alexander’s list does without, and heads in a different direction, with plenty of Leman Russ, supporting Heavy Bolter teams, and Tempest Scions for some deep striking action. Scout Sentinels and a flood of Infantry (with redeploys via Master Tactician) round out the list to offer serious screening and scoring potential.

As much as it pains me to say it, its one or two of the horrible new tricks that guard got in their book that are absent here that are likely to have a big say in this match up against a brutal forward pressure Daemons build. Nine Beasts of Nurgle is an enormous amount of intervening objective harassment that requires irritating levels of firepower to remove, and supporting Brigands can throw down insufferable anti-infantry firepower. Most alarming of all is the Indomitable Bloodthirster, bane of any list dependent on one or two phases for damage, leading the charge in Logan’s melee contingent. Astra Militarum do have a ready made piece of tech for this ‘orrible piece of work in the form of the Finial of Nemrodesh 1st, with its complete shut down of much of 9ths defensive jank. As it is, this isn’t present for the guard in this list, and neither is the teleporting trickery of the Barbicant’s Key. This means that whilst the Guard can certainly control the delivery options available to the Daemons via Remain Vigilant, and they will take an enormous toll on the neverborn at range as they approach, they lack an obvious way of toppling the Bloodthirster before it makes an awful mess, and the Daemons will have an easier time managing the dropping in of small Scions squads.

The mission is also a make or break for this match up, with its focus on repositioned priority objectives. This usually sees the defensive player (the humans in tissue paper armour, you’d imagine) trying to keep objectives back, and the offensive player (the guys made of dreams carrying axes, you’d suppose) moving them centrally, trying to prompt a brawl. If the Daemons can get on the front foot and grab ahold of the guard priority objective then scoring can become difficult, and the lack of an answer to the phase cap on the Thirster makes this easier despite greater guard control options via order based screening. Nonetheless, it looks like both players made a real go of this, and it’s great to see two very interesting lists slugging it out for the big prizes.

Result

Chaos Daemons Victory – 89 – 80

Logan Antonation – Chaos Daemons – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown.

Archetype

Daemon / Knight Soup

Thoughts

This build is a glorious display of forward pressure, with the aforementioned Beasts and Bloodthirster causing massive headaches for the opponent as Wardogs lock down primary scoring and throw out weight of fire shooting. The ob sec count as  five makes them a little more versatile for mission play than Flamers might have been in this role, and they can contribute from further away from the action itself.

Plaguebearers are no joke at their current price (I’ve seen firsthand recently what twenty of them sneaking in somewhere you don’t want them can do!) and Mamon Transfigured is a sneaky piece of tech at 130 points, bringing rerolls for Nurgle Daemons and Daemon Prince levels of melee output at bargain basement prices. This list is direct, vicious, and well rounded, and it can readily contest the entire board whilst putting the opponent under existential pressure and scoring handsomely for doing so. Great work Logan, you monster!

The Best of the Rest

There were 5 more players on 5-1 records. They were:

• 2nd – Alexander Buchan – Astra Militarum: Born Soldiers with a surprising lack of Kasrkin, leaning instead on five Russes (two of whom are Commanders) and lots of Infantry. Also features a Scion patrol for extra objective play.
• 3rd – Brenden Chrustie – Black Templars:  Herohammer and elite infantry for days – Aggressors, VanVets, Bladeguard, Assault Terminators – you name it, they’re here, and most are decked out with powerful Relic Bearers upgrades.
• 4th – Cyle Thompson – Black Templars: Impulsor Spam skew, packing Impulsors filled with Sword Brethren, Assault Intercessors, Incursors and/or Grimaldus, three Gladiator Lancers, a full Terminator brick and Robute Guilliman overseeing how this crusading thing is going.  Lots of melta shots, big value from Uphold, and no easy targets.
• 5th – Curtis Strong – Death Guard: Inexorable with a big Plague Marine unit in a Dreadclaw, Terminators and Daemon Engines, and the ominous form of Mortarion overseeing everything.
• 6th – Nathan Sgrazzutti – Black Legion: An all-rounder list where Abaddon leads heavily buffed Terminators and a variety of small units to control the board while the big brick holds the centre. Note: unless it was fixed on the day, this list needs to find 30 more points somewhere, as it needs to pay for Marks on the Rubricae and Plague Marines.

Team Battle Brothers 40k GT

52-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Carthage, NC US on February 18 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission – Secure Missing Artefacts

Daniel Paolini – Iron Hands:
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Matt Schuchman – Ulthwe:
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Oh HELLO. If anything gives you some idea how Arks of Omen has been playing out in its early stages, its this showdown. Iron Hands are all tooled up and ready to throw down, partying like its early 9th edition again with Drop Pods, Grav Devastators, a character Volkite Dreadnought and supporting Vanguard Vets. They can score big via Codex Warfare, fight hard in combat via the successor traits, and they’ve packed some poor scouts into land speeder storms to all but guarantee Behind Enemy Lines… but wait? What if elves had been given a drop pod of their own at some point in the intervening period? Surely not, right?

This Ulthwe list mirrors much of the brutal mixed arms potential of the Iron Hands build, with turn one alpha potential via Falcons loaded up with Aspect Warriors of varying flavours, but it also brings the conventional secondary scoring tech of the Ghosthelm to ensure that psychic powers and secondaries get scored and points get placed on the board. Rangers offer further passive point accumulation through Scout the Enemy, forcing engagement. If opponents get close there’s the small matter of a freaking AVATAR lurking, whilst Baharroth does all those sneaky things you know so well and mutters under his breath about how it was more fun when he got both the custom Craftworld traits at once…

The all round scoring flexibility and damage output that both lists offer, coupled with the objective movement shenanigans of Secure Missing Artefacts (it’s entirely plausible one or more players end up trying to defend an objective in the open from all the opposing guns), makes this a razor tight and precarious match up. Both forces are capable of putting a huge hole in the other early doors, but also have the delivery systems and combat punch to brutally punish any early mistakes on the counter. The slightly stronger Ulthwe passive scoring game might just tip things into forcing Iron Hands aggression here, and elves do love to counter attack. Equally its plausible the elves just went for the nuclear option with their Falcons early doors and never looked back. Either way it seems like the pointy ears were able to leverage their damage slightly more effectively and bring home the win, but i’ll bet this was a nail biter.

Result

Ulthwe Victory – 97 – 71

Matt Schuchman – Ulthwe – 1st Place

The List

See showdown.

Archetype

Ulthwe… Falcon…. Avatar….. Stuff? Ulthwe Falcon Avatar Stuff?! You’ve stumped me here Matt.

Thoughts

As alluded to above this is a wonderful mixed arms list, capable of scoring passively through BEL, Scout the Enemy, and Warp Ritual, whilst retaining the ability to line up some appropriate fate dice, throw down some Falcons and blow an enormous hole in the enemy lines at any given moment. Ulthwe’s innate 6++ and fate dice give you excellent resilience on the vehicles, capable of tanking key shots at appropriate moments, and the psychic tech of the helm ensures that no other masters of the arcane stand in the way of their secondaries. I know that Wings would want me to tell you you’re a big damn hero for taking the Avatar Matt, and I will always champion any list that brings Eldrad along for the ride. Congratulations on the win.

The Best of the Rest

There were 8 more players on X-1 records. They were:

• 2nd (undefeated with a draw) – Michael Aigner – Astra Militarum: Born Soldiers Goodstuff with pretty much the tools you’d expect – Kasrkin, plasma Russes and Mortars, with a Finial squad and Gatekeeper Tank Commander and Lord Solar in charge.
• 3rd – Mark Hertel – Iron Hands Successors: Drop Devs, lots of Scouts (including a full sniper squad) and several units of Assault Terminators as Master Artisans/Long-Ranged Marksmen successors.
• 4th – Robin Roberts – Genestealer Cult: Twisted Helix melee with the full 30 Purestrains and lots of Acolytes/Metamorphs plus a big bike unit in support.
• 5th – Daniel Paolini – Iron Hands Successors: Artisans/Whirlwind all-rounder Hands with drop Devs, Scouts in Storms, Redemptors and VanVets.
• 6th – Edward Appel – Dark Angels: Deathwing and Black Knights galore, meeting the criteria to be a First Company detachment and thus unleashing the full power of ObSec Terminator bricks.
• 7th – JC Watts – Iron Hands: Never mind the return of Triptide – triple RePex, back on the table. Dies Irae playing in my mind right now. Backs them up with a bunch of additional inexpensive hulls in the form of Storm Speeders and Gladiator Valiants, making the Iron Hands trait do serious work. Still got narrowly out-shot by Michael’s Astra Militarum in the final round.
• 8th – Mike DeAngelis – Craftworlds: Aspect Warrior-heavy Ulthwe, clearly leaning hard into Wrath of Khaine.
• 9th – Chalk Wetmore – Adeptus Custodes: Speedy Shadowkeepers with Venatari and Bikes.

Wrap Up

Another big week for those with many many guns, and for those able to hide from or deflect such petty weapons until the time is right. Is it time for something a little less subtle, a little more melee centric,  a LOT more angry, to have a say in the Arks meta? We might just have the answer for you next week.

**It was an honour and a privilege to contribute a few chunks to an article I’ve read weekly for many years now, and I hope we have Wings back to full health and getting excited about Avatar lists next time out. The work he puts into these on a weekly basis is simply remarkable. Get well soon pal.**